Of all the things that he does well, John Farrell can command a room best of all. He can orate with the best of them and, on a certain day early in February in Fort Myers, he must have been really on his game.

Ask a Red Sox player — any Red Sox player — when they knew this season might be special and he will tell you “on the first day of spring training. We had this meeting ...”

We can only guess at the specific points Farrell addressed when his team assembled for the first time, but the themes included “Stay focused on today,” “Leave yesterday behind,” “Play for each other,” and “Put the work in.”

Oh, and one more thing: “No more drama.”

“There was a very candid and pointed conversation to restore the expectation, and that is winning,” Farrell told reporters.

“In my mind, and in Ben (Cherington’s) mind, winning is associated with the Boston Red Sox. The deeper question was how are we going to do it.

“And that’s where there was a clear-cut vision of how we were going to get there.”

However he articulated his message, Farrell left an indelible mark on his team that day, his words resonating with everybody in the room, from the kids who could only dream about making the team right up to the team’s owner, John Henry, who heard about it second-hand.

“So many of the players have talked about the first day of spring training, and for me, it began about that time, where I realized he was much more a take-charge guy than I had realized, that he really did have a strong presence with everybody from coaches to players and on up the line,” Henry said in a radio interview this weekend.

We can sense the rolling of eyes and gnashing of teeth among those in Toronto who still hold a grudge that Farrell bolted to the dark side to take his “dream job” before his contract with the Blue Jays was finished. Fair enough. We get that.

But the statute of limitations on letting it go has come and gone.

“We respect John and his decision to pursue his dream job, if that’s what he called it,” Jose Bautista said when the season opened. “We’d rather have him over there than (being) here wishing he was there.”

Farrell took a beating in Toronto after his appointment in Boston, then again at the winter meetings, when he came to Dunedin in spring training and then again on opening day. He’s tried to handle it all tactfully and has constantly expressed his thankfulness to the Jays for giving him his first managerial opportunity. He did so again Monday.

“When you look at the progression over three years, I’m sure I’m different now in a number of ways,” he said. “I’d probably be a failure if I wasn’t. I’m thankful for the opportunity in Toronto and the challenges we faced there.

“The mechanics of the day-to-day (in both cities) are probably very similar, but the personalities that you deal with are going to be different in every clubhouse. That’s where you have to stay open-minded and become a little more assertive in situations rather than let them grow into something that can become uncontrollable.”

That may have been a vague reference to the Yunel Escobar eye-black fiasco or maybe the parting shot by Omar Vizquel, who felt that young players were not disciplined effectively under Farrell’s watch.

Farrell has been more assertive with the Red Sox, demonstrating it early in the season. In a game at Tampa on April 13, closer Joel Hanrahan started the ninth inning and walked two in a row. Farrell immediately hooked him and brought in Koji Uehara.

“He took a pitcher out of a defined role in a specific situation because the game dictated it,” said Mike Hazen, the Red Sox’s assistant general manager. “That was one of the most interesting points for me. That’s one of the things I look back on in terms of his ability to manage the clubhouse and manage the team.”

In that case, as he does virtually every day, he sat down with the player, in this case Hanrahan, and explained the reasoning.

“You’re able to go in and voice your displeasure, if you have one, and there’s no hard feelings, there’s no grudges,” says catcher David Ross. “He just tells you how it is. He treats us like men. He doesn’t lie to us. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything. That’s all we want.”

Farrell learned a lot about managing in Toronto those two seasons and he’s refined his approach back in Boston. As a guy who was a respected pitching coach there for three years, he’s been a perfect fit as a returning family member assigned the job of cleaning up the mess left by Bobby Valentine in 2012.

“I hope I’ve learned to just stay ahead of certain situations that could grow into something more rather than letting it maybe play out by itself,” Farrell said. “I’ve learned to get involved with a situation more readily, to either answer a question from a player or put his mind at ease or address something before it grows into a larger issue.”

Now he’s a year into the job. It’s late October and the season is not yet over.

“It’s been a different journey when you consider where this organization came from a year ago at this time to where we are now,” said Farrell. “It’s been a contribution of so many people. I can’t look at myself and say, ‘I’m the guy who brought this team here.’ That would be ludicrous on my part.”

The Red Sox, as it turned out, were not the irretrievable mess that people believed they were at the end of the 2012 season. They had a hard core of players such as Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz and Jon Lester, who had been to the mountain top in 2007 and wanted desperately to put the ugliness behind them.

Farrell was a trusted old friend from those days, so they were a compliant group. When the manager said, “Jump,” they responded, “How high?”

“Anybody that was around here last year knows, that’s kind of a big thing for players,” catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said.

“You don’t want to hear something new every day, you want to be consistent. John does a great job of communicating with us. You still have to produce. Nothing is guaranteed. But to have him have your back, that’s all a player ever wants.”

GM Cherington brought in Farrell and his coaches, plus players such as Shane Victorino, Jonny Gomes, Mike Napoli, Ryan Dempster, Stephen Drew and Uehara. Every one of them has turned out to be a hidden gem who fit right into the team’s structure. They all bought in.

“Everybody has bought into the concept that preparation is a key component in our ability to play to the consistency we have shown,” said Farrell. “There’s a reason why we haven’t lost more than three games in a row this year and that commitment is why.”

When Farrell asked Alex Anthopoulos to let him walk on the last year of his contract to go to his “dream job,” he wasn’t just trying to sell the narrative. Manager of the Boston Red Sox is one of the plum jobs in sports and they wanted him. If you’re a success, you’re a made-man for life. Fail and ... well, you’re Bobby Valentine.

“Working in Boston is not only humbling, but it’s a great challenge,” said Farrell on Monday. “The importance of the Red Sox to the city and this region speaks for itself and to be entrusted with that is rewarding, no question about it.”

Red Sox manager John Farrell restored winning attitude in Beantown

Of all the things that he does well, John Farrell can command a room best of all. He can orate with the best of them and, on a certain day early in February in Fort Myers, he must have been really on his game.

Ask a Red Sox player — any Red Sox player — when they knew this season might be special and he will tell you “on the first day of spring training. We had this meeting ...”

We can only guess at the specific points Farrell addressed when his team assembled for the first time, but the themes included “Stay focused on today,” “Leave yesterday behind,” “Play for each other,” and “Put the work in.”

Oh, and one more thing: “No more drama.”

“There was a very candid and pointed conversation to restore the expectation, and that is winning,” Farrell told reporters.

“In my mind, and in Ben (Cherington’s) mind, winning is associated with the Boston Red Sox. The deeper question was how are we going to do it.